Department for the Study of Religion (DSR)

Since all the extensive histories of the tafsīr genre published so far are in Arabic,
a close analysis of the historiography of these works is a desideratum. In this article
I will argue that there are three major categories of historiography, the traditional
Ashʿarī, the Salafī, and the modernist. Identifying these camps is essential if we desire
to understand the manner in which tafsīr studies has been approached so far, since the
proponents of all three have produced, and continue to produce, the editions of tafsīr
works that are the basis of most histories in Western academia. It will also allow us to
investigate the history of the all-present term ‘al-tafsīr bi’l-maʾthūr’ which has come
to play a key role in the categorisation of tafāsīr. Charting the historiography of tafsīr,
moreover, is here undertaken in conjunction with discussion of the history of
publications of editions of tafsīr in the Arab world. In other words, a history of the
editions themselves as eventful milestones in a historiography of tafsīr is the primary
means through which I attempt to understand this selfsame historiography.
Histories

One common thread among the diverse lineages of the spiritual healing techniques called Reiki is that they each trace their ancestry to Usui Mikao (1865-1926).  Indeed, practitioners in all lineages are told hagiographical accounts of Usui’s life as part of their initiation courses.  However, despite clamor by practitioners for the details of his life, little biographical data exists except a memorial stele erected by a small, secretive organization called Usui Reiki Ryōhō Gakkai.  This text, carved in stone, the very metaphor for permanence and legitimacy, betrays the concerns of its patron, the Gakkai’s president and an admiral in the Imperial Navy, for the future of his organization as well as the legacy of Usui.

This paper analyzes the text of the stele in the context of the Taishō’s cultic milieu, a time when leaders of healing-centered new religious movements faced state suspicion, even suppression.  Perhaps to avoid this fate, the author used the rhetoric of Confucianism, mountain asceticism, and emperor worship to contextualize Usui’s innovative healing method within these traditions.  Through interrogating these narrative choices and the motivations behind them, this paper represents a step towards recreating the early history of Reiki, perhaps the most widespread spiritual healing practice of Japanese origin.

Al-Biqa`i quoted the four Gospels in a unique fashion in his Qur'an commentary Nazm al-Durar.  He fashioned a harmony based on Mark's Gospel and proceeded to fashion what can only be called an Islamic Diatessaron.  This article shows how he cited his material in detail.

In generalizations about the healing practices of the new religions, Jōrei and Okiyome, the purification rituals of Sekai Kyūseikyō, Shinji Shumeikai, and Mahikari, have been mislabeled as forms of faith healing.  According to the cosmologies, leadership, and membership of these groups, these techniques do not require faith, but in fact are the source of faith due to their empirically verifiable results.  This paper contextualizes these practices and their underlying cosmologies and etiologies, by placing them in a history of Japanese religious thought and practice and by contrasting them with yogic healing, qigong, and Reiki: other Asian spiritual practices that also claim to heal the sick through the manipulation of invisible, cosmic energies.  It concludes that these religions' conceptions of purity and pollution, inherited from Ōmotokyō, is significantly different from those of the dominant Japanese religious traditions, and that the emphasis on purity distinguishes these practices from the other spiritual healing practices, which emphasize balance.